Quentin Fears is a recluse, and obsessed with the older sister who died when he was a child. He is also a millionaire, having made his inital fortune as a software engineer, and then increased it by funding a number of successful start-up companies.

However, now in his mid-thirties he is desperately lonely. That is until he meets Madeleine at a party he attends. Madeleine is, to him, the perfect woman. Within months of their first meeting they are married and everything seems happy, even if she has, thus far, kept him well away from her family. When she at last takes him to meet her family his discovers a very unusual bunch of people living in a big old country house, and that the Madeleine around them is drastically different to the Madeleine he has so far known.

He becomes aware of some dark family secret, one which could release great evil in the world, and one which he know must prevent form being unleashed.

There's a lot in this that could be very unoriginal and predictable, however Orson Scott Card is a talented writer and his style and characterisations raise this up a notch or two from the level the plot suggests.

Once again Mr. Card writes a novel that drags you through to the end, it is so easy to read and satisfying. But that said this is still not an original storyline and the best writing style in the world does not hide the fact. It is entertaining and will certainly satisfy most of the author's fans, but it probably wouldn't gain him any new ones.